RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Early life antibiotic exposure is associated with an increased risk of allergy
JF European Respiratory Journal
JO Eur Respir J
FD European Respiratory Society
SP PA3639
DO 10.1183/13993003.congress-2016.PA3639
VO 48
IS suppl 60
A1 Fariba Ahmadizar
A1 Susanne J. H. Vijverberg
A1 Hubertus G.M. Arets
A1 Anthonius de Boer
A1 Jason E. Lang
A1 Johan Garssen
A1 Aletta Kraneveld
A1 Anke H. Maitland-van der Zee
YR 2016
UL http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/48/suppl_60/PA3639.abstract
AB Background: Several studies suggested that early life exposure to antibiotics is associated with an increased risk of developing allergies later in life, but results are inconsistent.Methods & Design: PubMed and Web of Science databases were searched for observational studies published from January 1966 through November 11, 2015. Studies were included that assessed the association between antibiotic consumption during the first 2 years of life and the risk of eczema or hay fever later in life. Overall pooled estimates of the odds ratios (ORs) were obtained using fixed or random-effects models.Results: Twenty-two studies (including 394,517 patients) were selected to study the risk of eczema and 22 studies (including 256,609 patients) to study the risk of hay fever. The summary ORs for risk of eczema were 1.24 (95% CI, 1.09-1.41; I2: 60.0%) in the meta-analyses of the cohort studies; 1.41 (95% CI, 1.33-1.49; I2: 0.0%) in the cross sectional studies, and 1.15 (95% CI, 1.01-1.42; I2: 79.5%) in the case control studies. The summary ORs for risk of hay fever were 1.18 (95% CI, 1.01-1.37; I2: 74.3%) in the cohort studies; 1.56 (95% CI, 1.29-1.90; I2: 63.6%) in cross sectional studies, and 1.14 (95% CI, 1.04-1.26; I2: 64.8%) in the case control studies.In subgroup analyses, there was no statistically significant effect of the patient's age at both time of antibiotic use and time of allergy diagnosis on these associations. The association was stronger if patients had been treated with ≥ 2 courses compared with one course of antibiotics both for eczema and for hay fever.Conclusions: Early life exposure to antibiotics is related to an increased risk of both eczema and hay fever later in life.